In the past, road building and paving equipment designers have endeavored to improve the functionality of such equipment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,085 to Campbell shows a gravity-fed paver. This patent teaches the use of engine exhaust to the side of the hopper to facilitate flow of material through the gravity-fed hopper to the screed. Equipment has been made where the flow of material has been facilitated by conveyors or augers, etc., such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,272 to Macku. In Macku, the apparatus enjoys a lower center of gravity.
While these approaches of using heated wall gravity-fed hopper pavers and low profile slat and remix machines have been used extensively in the past, they do have some drawbacks. First of all, the gravity-fed hopper often requires extra height to the hopper so as to allow the application of a significant amount of heat to the side of the hopper and to facilitate delivery of the hot mix asphalt (HMA) backwards to the screed. These heated wall gravity-fed hoppers could have significant disadvantages in stability, as well as often lower capacity and inconvenient HMA loading methods. Secondly, the low profile slat and remix machines require the use of some type of a conveyor because there is either no or insufficient slope in the hopper to cause the HMA to flow backwards. These low profile slat or remix machines require considerable cleanup owing to the propensity for HMA to stick to and remain on surfaces, especially the lower wall or floor of the HMA storage bin or hopper.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for deploying a low profile HMA machine with reduced labor associated with cleanup, especially cleanup of the floor of the hopper or bin. Also, some of the solvents typically used to clean up or to prevent sticking are environmentally unfriendly, such as the use of fuel oil or diesel fuel as a solvent. Often these solvents get into the ground and damage vegetation and can get into creeks and streams, and in extreme cases, into water tables.